


we all won that war

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [195]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassins & Hitmen, F/M, Families of Choice, Gen, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 08:06:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1975371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha didn't come in with Clint -- instead, he ran with her.  It changes things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we all won that war

**Author's Note:**

> Title: we all won that war  
> Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton  
> Warnings: AU pre-canon; spoilers all the way to Winter Soldier  
> Pairings: implied Clint/Natasha & Steve/Bucky  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 1290  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: MCU, Clint/Natasha, Clint defected instead of Natasha

"We have a place for you," the American says. His hands are empty at his sides, fingers spread to simulate his helplessness. Of course he is not helpless -- he has hunted her across five nations, through three separate battlegrounds, and not lost her scent even once. It is very impressive. 

She should be dead; this American is a perfect marksman and even she must know from where the shot is coming before she can duck. 

Were he not American, and not so young, she might think her own teacher taught him, but no. By his stance, he has learned from some American agency, what he didn't teach himself. 

"Your masters wish me dead," she says. 

"Yeah, okay, that's true," he laughs. "But I think you deserve a second chance." He shrugs. 

She wants to smile at his naivety. Oh, this American is so very young. “I escaped my masters once,” she says, “and I burned them behind me. I’ll not be imprisoned again.” 

He doesn’t tense, just keeps watching her. She tilts her head, watching him right back. “Were you caught?” she asks, keeping the smile off her face. “Were you given this same choice?” 

He winces before wiping the expression away, but he is not as good as her. (None are.) (… well, one. But he was a long time ago, and is most likely dead, now.) (Maybe…) 

“You were,” she says gently. “Hunted down and told to come in or die…” He flicks his glance away; his hands close into fists. “And now you seek to cage me as you have been caged? I think not.” She silently walks to him, carefully sets her hands on his shoulders. 

If he were fast enough, he could kill her right now. She can most definitely kill him. She doesn’t want to; he is a fascinating boy. 

“Will you keep hunting me if I let you live?” she whispers, gently turning his face so that she catches his gaze. “You have to return with my head or me beside you, yes? What is the price of failure?” 

“They’re the good guys,” he says, but he does not believe the words. 

“My masters said that, too,” she tells him. “Would you like to hear a third choice?” 

He laughs, the sound both bitter and desperate. “Sure,” he says. “Why the fuck not.” 

She smiles at him now, a smile she has not worn since last she saw Winter, and she offers, “Come with me instead.” 

He stares at her, completely gobsmacked, and her smile widens. “No masters but ourselves; no rules but our own. I’ll give you until dawn to decide, and then I’ll be gone.” She lifts her hand to gently pat his cheek and backs up a step. He just keeps staring at her so she turns and exits through the window. 

He does not shoot her. 

.

In the morning, the American joins her for breakfast. “I’m Clint,” he says as he sits down. “Hawkeye.” 

She does not smile at him. Instead, she says, “And I am Natasha.” They do not shake hands. 

.

Clint is amusing and efficient. He refuses to kill children, but this is the extent of his morals. She follows him in that. (She has never hesitated if the mission necessitated children’s deaths, but she is no longer on missions. What she takes now are _jobs_. She does not explain the difference to Clint, but he is clever enough. She is sure he has figured it out.)

Because she is with Clint in Hong Kong instead being vetted at SHIELD, she sees Winter ducking into a shop. She knows that there is an old safe house beneath it. 

He is not dead. He is still enslaved to somebody. Not her masters and creators – he was gone long before she destroyed them all. 

She sends Clint a text because she has found a new mission and whoever has Winter now must be dealt with. 

.

When Captain America is thawed just in time for the Aesir/Jötnar/Chitauri invasion, he is asked to help a team called the Avengers – Iron Man, Hulk, and Falcon. Loki takes Fury, Selvig, and Hill – the army he finds of humans is not as impressive as it could be because no one trusts Fury. Stark is too busy tracking the tesseract to find Phase 2, and Hydra – 

Well, Hydra has been systematically hunted down for a decade and is nowhere near full strength. 

But in the streets of New York, three master assassins arrive just in time to turn the tide. The best snipers in the world pick off hundreds of the drones while the Black Widow and Selvig close the door a full minute before the World Security Council decide to nuke Manhattan. 

Captain America catches sight of the three of them and his mouth drops open. “Bucky?” he calls. 

Iron Man, Hulk, and Falcon are blocks away as Captain America stumbles over to the three assassins. 

Winter watches him come, a smile slowly spreading across his face. 

He says, “Steve.”

.

Twelve days ago, Bucky Barnes fell off a train. 

When Natasha says, “We should leave before SHIELD gets here,” Clint nods. 

They both look at James, who looks at Steve. “Come with us?” he asks. (Seventy years ago, Bucky Barnes died. A decade ago, technicians dying around him as a girl he once knew knelt beside him, James began to wake up.) 

Steve smiles and nods fervently, saying, “Yes, Bucky, anywhere.” 

.

“What the fuck!” the Director of SHIELD shouts after he is cognitively recalibrated. (Agent Coulson did not feel a small ounce of smugness as he beat Nick Fury into the ground. Nope. Not even a little.) “Where is Rogers?” 

Stark has Jarvis examining any and all footage of the battle; Loki and Thor are preparing to return to Asgardr.

Captain America isn’t located in the rubble. There are no witnesses for anything that happened after the portal closed. 

“Goddamnit!” Fury says. “We _just_ found him.” 

.

“We’ve finally IDd the current Head of Hydra,” Natasha tells James and Steve. “He’s SHIELD.” 

James leans back, crossing his arms; Steve settles against him. “Alexander Pierce,” Clint announces. “Cut him off and the body will fall.” 

Steve nods firmly. “Let’s make a plan, then.” 

Natasha glances at James as she curls up beside Clint: he meets her eyes and he smiles, and it’s one that she does not remember from her girlhood, that she has not seen since she found him again. 

Bucky Barnes died when he fell from a train, but it is him she sees now, pressed shoulder-to-shoulder and thigh-to-thigh with Steve Rogers (quite possibly the greatest man she has ever known, who should not have fit in so seamlessly with them but did nonetheless) and discussing the best extraction techniques for the leader of SHIELD.

As they break for dinner, Steve mutters, “I fuckin’ hate Hydra.” 

Natasha laughs while James jabs an elbow into Steve’s side. “Don’t we all, pal.” 

“C’mon, you idiots, let’s order a pizza already,” Clint calls from the next room, where he’s juggling his phone and three pizza coupons. 

She wonders, for just a moment, what would have happened if she’d gone with Clint, joined SHIELD. She shakes it off to announce, “I want spaghetti,” smiling at Clint’s groaned, “You _know_ I hate spaghetti, Tasha.” 

“And?” she asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“Look, that place down the street has a little bit of everything, right?” Steve breaks in, herding them all towards the door. 

James meets Natasha’s gaze again. He looks so content, now. And she is happy. So she presses a kiss to his cheek, squeezes Steve’s shoulder as she passes, and grabs for Clint’s hand.

Her masters would not recognize the woman she has become, and she is glad.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] we all won that war](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8910100) by [reena_jenkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins), [tigriswolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf)




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